


Strangers Like Me

by Charlie9646



Series: A Brighter Side [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Dealing with the parents, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Good Severus Snape, No Death Eaters, Supportive Lily, Trans Male Character, Trans Severus, Transphobia, Vague mentions of past child neglect, Young Love, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22810258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Finding yourself is one of the greatest things a person can do— but having someone beside you makes it even greater.Starting making a life for yourself out of school is one of the strangest points in someone’s life. But, it's also the one of the most fun.
Relationships: Lily Evans/Severus Snape
Series: A Brighter Side [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639858
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23
Collections: Love Fest 2020





	Strangers Like Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheFairestOfTheRare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFairestOfTheRare/gifts).



Lily walked to the spot she had been meeting Severus since they were children. It was their spot; neither had ever invited anyone else to this quiet spot in the park by the small creek in Spinner’s End. Though she did have to admit to herself now at seventeen, the river did smell quite wretched. The truth was though they didn't have any better options. Not unless they could save up to get a flat in either the muggle or wizarding world.

Lily was far from proud of her parent's behavior, more so her father than her mother. They had know Severus since he was nine years old. It didn't matter; he asked to be called a different name now. It didn't matter that he now proposed to be called the he that he had always been. He still was Sev, her Sev. They just couldn't see it. Petunia called her a dyke now and a fagot. The worst was though now she called them the freaks of freaks.

Lily knew she was not a freak; there was nothing more wrong with her being in love with Severus Snape than it would be for her to be in love with James Potter. Though there would be nothing wrong with her being in love with Alice either, that was beside the point. Severus was as much a man as any in the ways that it counted at least.

He had a job working in a potion’s shop in Diagon Alley; he saved every sickle he could with the hope of leaving his childhood home behind. He was kind to her; they could talk about anything and everything. They would debate about everything from wizarding politics to if the weird sisters we're finally going to stop releasing albums.

But, the truth was the most important thing? When he kissed her, it felt like every single nerve in her body was alive. It made her want more. I made Lily feel things that she didn't know were even possible. He made her feel alive in a way no one else ever had. Lily Jane Evans was utterly in love with Severus Snape and nothing, not even her father’s threat that he would never speak to her again if she stayed with that... Thing. As he now referred to the man that as a child, he had once taught how to ride a bike.

Lily and Severus were just a few paychecks away from never having to see this horrible town ever again. But the truth was sometimes she thought might never want to see any of the people in it again, either.

Severus walked up the hill, still dressed in his work robes, long black hair pulled tightly back at the nape of his long neck. He did this hoping his hair could be kept from the steam off the potion’s, and maybe just maybe it would help it be less greasy. It didn't work all that well, but the truth was Lily didn't mind. Hair was well hair. You could cut it, grow it out, and wash it. She never understood Potter’s issue with Sev’s hair. It was as the boy now man, better yet man child couldn't find an actual insult, so he went after his classmate’s looks.

The man was downright stupid, the king of the bloody wankers, if there ever was one.

Severus had reached her now a smile lit up his face making him far more handsome, he rarely smiled, and when he did, they were usually for her. He said softly, ”How was your day?”

”Good, the shop was quiet for the most part. I had a chance to fill out my application to the healer trainee program.”

”That’s great, Lily, I know how much that means to you. Only a couple more months before it starts, right?”

She sighed, ”Sev, I haven't even applied! There are so many remarkable people using many of which happen to be far smarter than I am.”

He leaned down then and kissed her, his long-fingered hand tangling into her red waves as he did so. He caused Lily to moan into his mouth as he did so. Then his tongue asked for entrance. That feeling of being held by him, of him even just a small bit inside of her caused her to shiver with the sheer pleasure of the act. She ever so slightly shoved him back, Lily could kiss Severus for a thousand lifetimes, but she also needed to breathe.

Severus rested his forehead against hers and said, ”Anytime you talk down on yourself, Lily, I will kiss you silent, understood?”

”I happen to like your kisses quite a bit, Mr. Snape, so I may have to talk down on myself more often.”

He rested one pale finger on her lips and said, ”None of that or I may have to find a better use for that mouth of yours, Lily.” His tone was severe, but his raven’s wing black eyes we're the silliness that he rarely allowed himself to behave like.

This was the Severus few got to see; this was the Severus that made her fall in love with him. This was the Severus that made her want to marry him— that is, if we're legal in the wizarding or muggle world for them to marry. It didn't matter Severus had been on hormone replacement therapy for close to a year now. It did not matter that he was turning eighteen in four months, which was when he would have his first surgery. Thankfully St Mungos would do it at a relatively low cost.

The wizarding world was backward in a way Lily struggled to understand. They would not allow them to marry, but there were potions for Severus to take to replace his hormones. He could have surgery to remove his breasts, and yet if they ever tried to start a family, many of the people in their community would be up in arms. Severus was seen to those in the wizarding world as Severus Alexander Snape, a wizard.

It was if they heard during a game of bloody telephone that muggles hated, on transgender people, so they should accept them. But, in the actual practice of such a thing, they randomly decided that they did not like them, and they were just freaks of bloody nature who didn't deserve the same fundamental rights as everyone else.

It made Lily want to scream. It made her want to throw things. It made her want to march straight up to minister Fudge and shout in his stupid, ignorant pureblood lip servicing face and shout,” My Boyfriend isn't bloody broken! There is nothing wrong with my relationship, and if you value family so bloody much, let us marry because, unlike James Potter and Marlene, we didn't decide two weeks before our bloody wedding day we liked each other. Why is it their relationship is valid and accepted ours isn't?”

The truth was Lily didn't want even to bother wasting her breath. Her and Severus would have a family, a home, and a life no matter people like Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and the up and coming nut Tom Riddle said.

If it weren't supposed to be, it wouldn't feel so magical, now would it?

***************************

They did it; they finally did it, thought Lily as she took in every single detail of their small one-room flat. It wasn't much; there was no denying that. Well, at least not for people who were as grounded as they were.

Not with Severus’s parents and sometimes Lily’s own for that matter. Her father kept his promise he hadn't spoken to her in nearly three months. Christmas was almost here, but there was not even a card from her parents. Did they hate people who were not like themselves that much?

Though worse, she thought she was the letter that they had gotten from Severus’s mother. She scolded him about the fact she should stop pretending to be a man and find a nice pureblood boy to settle down with. Like someone from the Black family. Not the stupid little mudblood who was ruining what little hope the Prince family had to be respected again.

Merlin, it was as if Eileen Snape thought her son had no heart in his chest and no brain in his skull. As if he was her verbal punching bag, just as he was his father's literal one.

Severus said from his place where he sat cross-legged on their queen-sized bed in the center of the room, ”Sickle for your thoughts?”

”I was just thinking about how lucky I am. Here in this place of our own. You having your surgery next month, and I am going to start healer training.”

Severus rolled his eyes at her and said, ”Lily, and I am a Hufflepuff. Don't lie to me, Lils I have known you half our lives. Now, what's going on in that head of yours and what’s wrong.”

Lily climbed on the bed next to him and leaned her head on his narrow boney shoulder; she needed to put some meat on his bones, she thought, they were not poor, and he still was far too skinny.

She said, ”I was thinking about our parents. Mine mostly. It hurts how my dad is behaving, and I have met toddlers who act better. And mum, she's even worse! Going right along with it, falling dad around like he's some general. And then there is your mum Sev; she makes my parents look like freaking saints.Please promise me if we ever get the chance to be parents, we aren't going to be like them?”

”We aren't going to be like them, Lily. I can promise you that. Our kids will be able to tell us anything, they will be able to be anything, and you know what? We will support them, want to know why? Because we know what it's like not to be supported by our parents. We are going to be good parents, we might not end up being the best, but you know what? A monkey with a telephone would be better parents than I had.

However, when it comes to your parents, I think they need just time. Time to get used to the idea of all of this.”

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and said, ”Two years Sev, nearly two years. That's how long you have been out them. Beyond that, the signs were always there. The fact you wore boy’s clothes, preferred being called Sev, thought dolls were stupid and always tried to protect me. The signs were always there; they just didn't want to see them.”

Severus flopped back onto their bed, his inky black hair spreading around him like a halo. He had recently showered, so his hair was soft and silky. ”Lily... We can't make them accept me. We can't force the issue. I know it seems like we should be able to, but we can't. People are who they are. They believe what they believe, for better and sometimes in this case worse. Your parents aren't bad people. They aren't like the Malfoys or even my mother and father.

They just don't understand what it means to be transgender. Most people don't. They think it's some choice you can make. Sort of like buying a new pair of shoes. They don't understand I have always been a boy, and I was always going to become a man. They don't get it that if I hadn't come out, I would have just been a man cross-dressing as a woman for the rest of my life. That because of the gender I was assigned at birth, it would have been good crossdressing, but still crossdressing all the same.”

Lily curled into him; her hand rested on his soft cotton tee shirt; she did her best to avoid touching his chest, knowing how much that part of his body made him uncomfortable.

”Severus, when did you get such a level head?”

”Lily... I don't know. When did I realize if I kept trying to fight impossible things? Would I never be anything more than a fool? But truthfully, Lily, I feel more balanced on my potions. I feel like a ship whose course was finally righted. I feel a little less angry at the world. But, that might also have to do with the fact I haven't seen Potter or Black in over six months.”

He smiled at the last part, those fools had joined the Auror academy, and if he never saw either of them again. Though that was unlikely, they both knee that quite well. The wizarding world was a small community; everyone knew everyone. One day, though hopefully not soon, they would run into either one or both of those two men.

Lily said something quite strange for the somewhat meaningful conversation, ”I think we should adopt a cat.”

”Why?”

She sighed and said, ”Because I think we need to prove to both of ourselves, we can take care of something besides ourselves.”

”Do you want a part Keezle or a regular old muggle cat?”

Lily twisted her fingers into the blanket and said, ”Well, Alice’s cat had a litter of kittens, and there is little black one, no wants. He's so cute.”

Severus’s fingers brushed against Lily’s flat stomach, which sent shivers down her spine, ”Yes, we can take the kitten. But, now, I just want you for a little while.”

They started to kiss, hands clumsily removed jeans, and then Lily’s shirt. She did not reach for his. She knew what they were doing would come to a screeching halt if she did. Her hand rested under his shirt on his back, but not under his binder. The fabric of it was skin tight, and the fabric course under her fingers.

She whispered into his pale shell of an ear, ”We can stop if you like, Sev. I know you are not comfortable with much more, love.”

Severus nodded then and grabbed his sleep clothes off the wooden floor, he bolted off to their small bathroom, and then within seconds, she could hear that the shower was on.

Lily sighed and changed into her nightgown and curled up under the covers. What felt like forever and a day, but was at most a half-hour and likely less, Severus curled up under the blankets behind her, his arm wrapped around her and his mouth went to her ear.

”I love you, Lily, more than anything, and I am sorry about my issues.”

”Sweetheart, they aren't issues, and there isn't anything wrong with you. You have the right to say no; this makes me uncomfortable.”

He kissed her hair and said,” I don't know what I did to deserve you.”

Lily said, ”You love me; that's why.”

*******************************

It had been a year since that night; they had adopted the little black spitfire of a cat. He had his surgery, and Lily had started healer training. All was well— as well it could be. Lily wanted kids, she always had, and Severus desperately wished he could give them to her. No matter how much twisting and pinning— dreaming and praying, he could do no such thing.

Maybe it would have been better if Lily would have ended up with Potter, at least could have given her this wish. At least she could not have had her heart ripped in two with the idea of not being a mother. Severus never wanted children—he never saw the appeal of them—even when he was a child. They screamed, they made messes, they asked too many silly questions. But after all, she had given up for him Severus would give her this.

Maybe some good would come of Black trying to kill him with the wolf. The life debt had long since been paid by sharing the information that the death eater’s wanted to kill Potter. His tongue no longer had to be tied on what the man’s friends had done.

Potter sat down the air of arrogance he wore around himself like a cloak. Severus told him all there was to say. The most shocking part was the man agreed without the threat.

James Potter smirked and laughed, “I will give the little donation Snape, because in the end? I will have given her something your not capable of. And the fact you, Snape, will owe me again.”

In for a penny in for a pound thought Severus, but at least Lily would have her child.


End file.
